Peak TV Is Over. A Different Hollywood Is Coming.

The labor agreement that writers struck with studios and streaming platforms will likely accelerate the end to “peak TV," a decade that included an explosion of programming for viewers and job opportunities for talent in Hollywood. Streamers will have to find a way to pay increased talent costs—from the writers’ settlement, along with an earlier deal with directors and whatever is finalized with actors—without adding to their overall production costs. That will likely mean that companies will make fewer new shows and cancel even more that are on the bubble. In effect, while many people in Hollywood will get better pay as a result of the deal, the contraction in spending means there will be less work to go around. The studios held the line on key issues. Streamers won’t publicly release viewing data, despite the writers’ demands for transparency, but instead will give data on how shows fared to the Guild confidentially to share with its members in aggregate form. The studios also have a license to build artificial-intelligence tools and train them on writers’ scripts, after rejecting a demand from writers that they pledge not to do so. However, writers get some significant AI protections, too. They won’t lose out on writing credits or compensation when AI tools are used to assist in creating scripts.